By 1916, there were larger and more frequent (albeit illegal) anti-war speeches, and on May Day 1916 a speech by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg attracted almost 10,000 workers. This was the first display of open resistance in the war.
The workers were protesting about a lack of food, as Germany was surrounded by a British naval blockade, and supplies were running extremely low.
The cold ‘Turnip Winter’ of 1916-17 was particularly bad, where hard frosts had destroyed the potato crop, and the people of Germany had to live on primarily turnips.
Soldiers were equally as hungry as the people not serving for their country, and when their rations were cut in 1917, sailors started a mutiny. There were regular power cuts as coal and other supplies were running short.
On top of all this, the Spanish Flu hit Europe in summer 1918. 586,000 Germans died in less than a year. By October, even General Ludendorff admitted to the Reichstag that they could not win the war.
At the end of October, Germany’s naval chiefs ordered their ships out on a “death or glory”. Sailors on two ships refused and put out the fires in the boiler rooms, and were subsequently arrested. Following this, the rest of the sailors held a meeting en masse to protest against the arrests, and 8 were shot dead. From then on the mutiny spread rapidly; workers and soldier joined the mutiny and took control of Kiel, and this also happened in neighbouring ports. They (the socialists) set up their own government to run these towns, and from the ports it spread inland. In just 6 days, cities and towns all over Germany were joining in. Saxony and Bavaria set up their own governments and declared themselves a republic.
This forced Kaiser Wilhelm to abdicate, and on 10th November he left Germany for Holland. Friedrich Ebert, leader of the SDP, took his place as the leader of Germany, as the SDP were the strongest political party.
His first action was to sign the Treaty of Versailles with the allies, bringing an end to World War I. He was later branded as one of the ‘November criminals’ by Hitler and others. Hitler was devastated at the news of their loss at war.
The Problems of the Weimar Republic
The Spartacist (Communist) Revolt
Ebert, the new leader of Germany, wanted an elected parliament to make decisions about the countries future, whereas the spartacists wanted Germany to be run by the councils which the sailors had set up previously.
In December the Spartacists held a demonstration, but Ebert had troop shoot into the crowd to break it up, killing 16 people.
On December 23rd 1918, around 1,000 hungry and underpaid sailors broke into the Reichstag and held Ebert hostage at gunpoint. Some of Ebert’s soldiers joined in the revolt and also demanded more pay. This gave Ebert no option but to accept their terms.
On New Year’s Eve, the Spartacists renamed themselves the German Communist Party (GCP), and aimed for a communist revolution. This begins the next week, on January 6th 1919. Unfortunately for the GCP, Ebert had gained the support of the Free Corps, who were WWI veterans. They hated communism, and loved brutality, so there was no holding back when 2,000 of them attacked the Spartacists in Berlin on 10th January. There was street fighting for the next 3 days until the Free Corps were victorious. On the 15th of January, they arrested Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, and murdered them after giving them a savage beating. Rosa’s body was dumped in a canal.
